Classic and Accessible, The new Charlie Paris Initial Automatic Calendar

A relatively young brand founded in 2014 and based in Paris, France, the brainchild of childhood friends Ambroise and Adrien, Charlie Paris aims at delivering nice designs and solid watch content at fair prices. And the brand already carries quite a solid portfolio of models, such as the sporty Concordia we’ve covered already. But today, we move to classic designs, with the brand’s latest release, the Initial Automatic Calendar, part of a redesign process that has started last year to give Charlie Paris’ best-selling collection even more appeal. 

As said, there’s more than one collection at Charlie Paris. The most striking of them surely is the sporty Concordia – the blackened Kraken versions surely make an impact – but there’s also the GR Field watch or the Alliance, merging French design and Swiss power. The brand’s best-selling collection is, however, the Initial – modern, slightly minimalistic watches with a touch of elegance for daily wear. Mostly powered by Japanese automatic movements, it’s available in many variations, including classic 3-handers, openworked dials, day-night versions, and several dial colours. To celebrate its 10th anniversary last year, Charlie Paris decided to give its star collection a comprehensive update, redesigning the case and the dials with even more elegance and sobriety, as well as more detailed components.

To kick off 2025, the Paris-based brand unveils an updated design for the Initial Automatic Calendar, one of the most traditional versions in the collection offering elegance through symmetry, as well as horological content with calendar indications. The redesign process starts with the case, which has been reshaped and refined all around. Simple, classic and thus appropriate for daily wear, the new Initial collection has been given more curves and more details, which includes slimmer and tapered lugs, a thin slopped bezel and several steps on the profile, giving it some depth and masking some of the thickness. The lugs have a nice polished bevel and are paired with vertically brushed flanks.

What we’re looking at is a close-to-perfectly proportioned watch, measuring 40mm in diameter, about 46mm in length and 11mm in thickness (crystal excluded). It wears well on most wrists and looks at its place either with a business attire or a more casual outfit for weekends. The Initial Automatic Calendar features a domed sapphire crystal on top as well as a see-through mineral glass caseback. The crown is paired with a pusher at 2 o’clock, used to set the month indication. Water-resistance is rated at 30 metres, which would be the main complaint I have to make in this context…

The redesign process was not only focused on the case but also on the dial. Here again, we’re talking subtle updates to add refinement. The base, at least for the present example, has a silvery-white colour over a lightly sandblasted surface, giving nice plays of light. Compared to previous editions, the applied polished markers have been elongated and the logo updated to the new version used by the brand (a stylised C). What I found appealing with this Initial Automatic Calendar is the symmetry of its display – sure, it has a bit of a chronograph vibe, but that’s nothing bad. It consists of central spear-shaped hands for the time, two sub-counters for the day and month, and a date window at 6 o’clock. The blue-coloured hands are a nice touch.

Inside the case, and considering the accessible luxury approach of Charlie Paris, the Initial Automatic Calendar relies on a Japan-made movement, the tried-and-tested Miyota 9122. Running at 4Hz and with 42 hours of power reserve to offer, it is a solid movement that won’t let you down. Besides the pusher to correct the month indication, all the rest of the corrections are done by the crown – date and day with the second position of the crown. The transparent back reveals a movement with stripes and a customised rotor.

Charlie Paris offers the options for 4 leather straps (blue, brown, black and taupe) for a dressier look, or as presented here, a 3-link steel bracelet with a folding clasp. It is equipped with quick-release spring bars so you can easily swap the sporty-looking bracelet for a more elegant strap in seconds, without tools.

Now available from the brand, the Charlie Paris Initial Automatic Calendar is priced at EUR 645 on leather strap or EUR 685 on steel bracelet. A fair price for a nicely designed and assembled, timeless watch with modern elegance. For more details, please visit the dedicated page at charlie-paris.com.

Sponsored post: This article is sponsored by Charlie Paris. However, it reflects the writer’s opinion and has been written according to MONOCHROME’s editorial policy.